This blog is dedicated to everything related to the Los Angeles Angels, with an added twist: every news story, tidbit, and event relevant to the club will be broken down from a statistical standpoint. I believe the only way a fan can become truly educated about the game is understanding the numbers, and this site will give fans an opportunity to see what's really going on with the Angels, not just what meets the eye...

Friday, December 7, 2007

Disaster in Nashville

The Winter Meetings are over, and the long-coveted 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera has been traded. The only problem: he went to the wrong team, and now he will be crushing pitches in Detroit and not in Los Angeles of Anaheim.

Let me get this out of the way now, I am furious. I am beyond furious.

Who is Tony Reagins to come in, take the GM job, and do exactly what I was praying he wouldn't: overvalue unproven talent and refuse to pull the trigger for Hall-of-Fame talent.

I can't claim to know all the details, only the Angels and Marlins officials do, but I know this much: Reagins had a chance to plug the Angels biggest weakness with a 24-year old sure-fire Hall-of-Fame bat, and he balked because of reluctance to include both Ervin Santana and Nick Adenhart.

Question: Who is Ervin Santana and who is Nick Adenhart?

Answer: Two highly talented young pitchers, who both share something in common: they are not power-hitting third baseman.

They are in fact talented pitchers, something the Angels are well-stocked in. No one knows what they will produce, or if they will blow out their arms and future at some point, like many young talented pitchers do.

We do know that Miguel Cabrera, even when out of shape and unmotivated, puts up insane numbers in a terrible hitter's park. Let's review.

2007: .966 OPS, comprised of a much needed .401 OBP and a .565 slugging. That would look mighty nice either in front of or behind Vladimir.

2006: .998 OPS, boiled down to a .430 OBP and a .568 slugging.

2005: .946 OPS, with a .385 OBP and a .561 slugging.

The guy is improving, and he did his damage in a terrible environment on a bad, granted talented, young team.

So for Tony Reagins, you seem like a great organization guy with a good demeanor and a tender smile. You, unfortunately, are no GM. At least not a good one, not yet.

I will have more analysis on Miguel Cabrera to come, as well as a full analysis of the also disastrous Torii Hunter signing.

1 comment:

It's non-signings like these that cause teams and their fans to go into a 10 to 20 year hibernation.

I'm interested to hear more of a breakdown on this. But I assume that when you began writing you hit the keyboard so hard and couldn't think coherently. I don't blame you.

Some highlights: "now he will be crushing pitches in Detroit and not in Los Angeles of Anaheim." Never gets old.

And, "So for Tony Reagins, you seem like a great organization guy with a good demeanor and a tender smile." I haven't seen this guy but you make him sound like a ladies man. Does Epstein have some competition?

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I'm a huge fan of both European football and baseball, namely of Real Madrid and the LA Angels. I'm an LA Angels Game Analyst for Baseballcritic.com, a new site dedicated at finding new ways to score and understand baseball games. I also enjoy writing about baseball statistics through a fantasy baseball framework.
(UPDATED) As some can tell by going through here, I haven't updated my blogs in some time. I have had an encounter with the living God (Jesus) and have chosen to focus my life on that. I still enjoy the beautiful game and baseball, but I hope my next post will be about something (or better, Someone) more important.